The High Court has acquitted Dr Tiberius Muhebwa, the former Project Coordinator of the Project Management Unit (PMU) of the Global Fund, over a case that has dragged on for ten years.
Justice Lawrence Gidudu of High Court Anti-Corruption Division ruled on September 18, that Dr Muhebwa and three others had no case to answer since there wasn’t enough evidence to implicate them in the loss of the Global Fund money.
“The result is that prosecution did not adduce sufficient evidence to necessitate the accused persons to go on their defence. It falls far short of establishing a prima facie case to require the accused to go to their defence. Either the essential ingredients are lacking in some counts or the charges are false in some counts. A combination of the two leads to one conclusion, a finding that each of the accused persons has no case to answer and each is accordingly acquitted,” reads Justice Gidudu’s ruling.
It was alleged that on Nov 11, 2004 at PMU offices, Dr Muhebwa deliberately sold US$1m Global Fund money to DFCU Bank at a lower rate of Shs1, 712 per dollar leaving a better rate of Shs1720 per dollar that was offered by Stanbic Bank and yet he had been cautioned by the PMU’s finance department, a move that caused a financial loss of Shs8 million.
Dr Muhebwa was also accused of causing a financial loss of Shs100m when he allegedly sold US$4m Global Fund dollars to DFCU bank at a lower rate of Shs1, 700 per dollar leaving a better rate of Shs1,725 per dollar that was offered by Stanbic Bank.
Dr Muhebwa was jointly charged with Mr Robert Katuntu, a former DCFU Bank Managing Director, Mr Godfrey Lule, a former head of Treasury of DFCU Bank and Mr Kituuma Magala, a High Court advocate.
Katuntu, Lule and Kituuma Magala have been facing charges of conspiracy to defraud government of Sh295 million, which was allegedly fraudulently raised by Katuntu and Lule through manipulation of Global Fund foreign exchange rates and illicitly paid to Kituuma Magala as brokerage fees claiming that Kituuma Magala had introduced Global Fund to DFCU bank. They denied the charges.
However, Justice Gidudu said in view of his findings that no evidence has been adduced to establish fraud in the brokerage agreement and the fact that PMU did not complain about loss of money through Forex transaction.
“I am unable to find the reason to put A2, A3 and A4 on defence. I cannot ask them to explain what the prosecution has not accused them of. This count collapsed once PW1 took the stand and denied losing money in a project where he was overall supervisor and principal signatory,” Justice Gidudu avers in an 11-page ruling.
